


Tangled Timelines

by amandaithink



Series: Keeping You [9]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Fix-It: s02e12 Army of Ghosts, Established Relationship, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Light Angst, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26686090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amandaithink/pseuds/amandaithink
Summary: The Doctor and Rose have some news to share with Jackie, but the trip doesn't go quite as planned.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Keeping You [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837879
Comments: 39
Kudos: 60
Collections: Doctor Who Classic Tropes Event





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> This is my fic for the Classic Trope Event. Mine was Fix-It Fic.
> 
> This one is going to be a multi-chapter, with more tags added as I go.
> 
> For those of you who have been reading the whole series, I actually plan to finish up the honeymoon fics (they've just been giving me grief). So those will come later, with edits to series order etc etc. If you haven't read the series, I think you should be okay? They're bonded. It was an accident. That should be all the info you really need.
> 
> All of the thanks ever imaginable to [more1weasley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/more1weasley/pseuds/more1weasley) for betaing <33
> 
> All mistakes are most definitely mine (esp since I did a lot of glaring at this thing after it was beta'd).
> 
> I own nothing.

Multiple trips to the TARDIS' library and seemingly endless cross-referencing all culminated in the moment the large tome slipped from the Doctor's hands and onto the bed. It knocked against Rose’s leg and his eyes automatically moved to her face - still asleep. Since their bonding, his wife had gotten used to him bringing various things into bed with them for when he inevitably got bored while she slept.

“And you couldn’t alert me to this, because …?” he whispered to his ship, voice flat and eyes wide as his brain struggled to assimilate everything he had just read.

There was no answer from the TARDIS, not even a hum of acknowledgement. It figured.

The Doctor scrubbed his hand across his face before leaving the bed, heading straight to the infirmary despite the fact that he was only wearing boxers and a vest. This time he didn’t ask his inconsiderate ship for any assistance, simply pulled up every single file on Rose Marion Tyler that existed, on the TARDIS or not. It only took seconds to hack into Earth hospital files, after all.

Not that they helped much, as the technology used in Rose’s time was appallingly primitive.

“Level five medical garbage,” he muttered to himself, zooming past all of her records. Vaccines, minor illnesses, nothing that gave him a good picture of Rose Marion Tyler before she stepped onto the TARDIS. Which, overall, was a good thing - it meant that she had never been so hurt that she needed a CAT scan or an MRI. It would have just been nice to have the data, what with his near obsessive compulsive desire to have the most complete picture of his wife’s biological history.

It’s as if no one had ever heard of voluntary medical data filing. But so be it. The TARDIS had more than enough base scans, starting from the first moment Rose set foot on the ship. This time he wasn’t going to cut corners like he had before, when he’d looked at just her telepathic centers and absolutely nothing else.

Thinking about the last time he and his wife had been in here, weeks ago, the Doctor opened a new screen to check the progress of the six-dimensional comprehensive deep scan results. They were nearly complete.

A feeling of dread lodged in his stomach.

They should have been finished ages ago. The fact that they weren’t - 

He shook his head, wiping a hand down his face as he swiveled back to the primary view screen. The base scans should be able to offer him an explanation. _Would_. They _would_ , because he needed to know exactly what was going on.

The TARDIS had automatically compiled all base scans since their last visit, and his previous parameters were still in place, focused solely on what in humans was called the pineal gland. The Doctor wasn’t sure that name quite applied for Rose’s brain anymore - Epiphysis Cerebri seemed like a much more accurate name for her telepathic center, which was still showing slow, incremental growth.

Fingers moving quickly, he navigated away and started gathering new information. Graphs of brain capacity and function, cellular activity and health, levels of all hormones and neurotransmitters and molecules with a special search for anything that wouldn’t normally be found in a 21st century Earth human.

Waiting for the TARDIS to compile all of these graphs felt like torture, even though it took a relatively short amount of time.

And then he had screens and screens of data all vying for his considerable attention and painting a picture that had his hearts going into overdrive, adrenaline throttling through his systems. Terror. Elation. Fear. Hope. All of his emotions were muddled and changing by the nanosecond. Panic was a constant, however.

All of it was so overpowering that the Doctor soon found himself actively fighting his traitorous body as it tried to enter a completely unnecessary healing trance, confused as it was by his sudden inability to keep control of processes that he generally had a tight grip on.

Two hands fell onto his shoulders, shocking him into jumping up, nearly crashing into the infirmary’s computational system. He whirled around to see the confused and frightened face of his bondmate.

“Doctor?” she asked, hesitating.

He wondered how long she had been trying to speak to him, both verbally _and_ through their bond. Covering his face with both hands, he finally got his breathing back in order and his hearts-rate down.

“Sorry,” he finally managed, once he was capable of speech again, though the single word came out hoarse and scratchy.

“What’s happening? What’s wrong?” Rose asked, still not moving, hands fisted at her sides.

Focusing on their connection, he could feel her overwhelming concern … for _him_. Well, it did make sense in the ironic way these things always tended to. Since she had been asleep when he left her, the Doctor hadn’t put any thought into shielding. All of his emotions must have barreled into her like a freight train. Couldn’t have possibly been a pleasant way to wake up.

Reluctantly he dropped his hands, palms sliding down his face slowly as he gave up their paltry defense.

“Nothing’s wrong per se,” he hedged, wincing as her mental disbelief permeated their link. “It- it’s more complicated than that. It’s-”

He didn’t know how to explain it. His normally ever-present gob seemed to be offline now that he desperately needed it. Telepathic communication seemed to also be out, as his brain was still in the process of resettling from the accidentally self-induced bulldozing of his basic systems.

“It’s what?”

As the Doctor took another deep breath, Rose looked around, seeming to just realize where they were. She must have raced through the TARDIS to get to him in her worry. He felt incredibly guilty.

“It’s something that we would probably be much more comfortable discussing somewhere else,” he decided, scratching the hairs at the nape of his neck and looking down, shocked to realize that he was nearly naked. “Maybe after getting dressed. And a shower. Breakfast. Not in that order!”

Rose sighed and crossed her arms. The Doctor took a moment to notice _her_ clothing, which consisted of a housecoat and slippers, but he couldn’t tell what she had on underneath (if anything).

“And then we’ll talk?” she questioned, both eyebrows raised, getting his mind back on track.

“Yes. Definitely. How does tea in the library sound?”

Her lips were pursed, but she eventually nodded.

“Good. Great! And I- I’m really, truly sorry for worrying you,” he sighed, finally moving forward and wrapping his arms around his _impossible_ wife. It took a few moments before Rose relaxed into the embrace.

“This is about me, isn’t it?” she whispered after a few long, silent moments.

“Shh,” he scolded. “Shower first. Shower, clothes, food, then talking.”

Procrastination really is just a different type of running, and no one knew that better than the Doctor. He also knew that he wasn’t fooling Rose for a moment. Their bond was still wide open, the contents of their impending discussion only hidden due to the fact that it was all categorized in his mind as ‘scientific information’, and therefore held back by one of the many barriers he kept permanently in place so that he wouldn’t inundate his bondmate with headache inducing amounts of information.

“Alright then,” she conceded, “let’s get going.”

The Doctor took her hand as she pulled away, allowing himself to be led through his time ship. In his current, nebulous state he doubted he’d be able to find their room if he tried. He was just grateful that Rose understood that his desire to put off this conversation didn’t mean he wanted to be separated from her in the slightest.

It was funny, sometimes, to imagine that all of the effort he had previously put into studiously trying to _not_ overwhelm her with just how much he wanted to almost always be in her presence had been completely inverted now that all of their cards were forever on the table.

They got into the shower together and he began to wash his wife’s hair as if on auto-pilot, only refocusing on the present moment when feelings of relaxation and contentment began to pierce through the veil of unpleasant emotions tangled across their shared minds. Once the shampoo rinsed away, the Doctor couldn’t stop himself from cupping her face and pulling her into a relatively chaste kiss. Maybe, just maybe, he could convince himself that everything would all _truly_ be alright (for once). Because one thing that had been clear while looking through her scans was that Rose was perfectly healthy. Her life wasn’t threatened in the slightest.

Things were just … different.

Before he was quite ready, they had finished showering, were both fully clothed, somehow tea and toast had been made (though he barely remembered being in the galley), and they had reached the library. Rose immediately sat down on the sofa, a fire already crackling away in the grate. He followed her, taking a large gulp of his beverage the moment he sat down. For all of the time he had spent trying to organize his thoughts, they were still less than refined.

The problem was, despite being bonded and therefore having an intimate knowledge of her thought processes, the Doctor _still_ couldn’t predict how she would react to any of what he’d discovered in the hours his wife had spent sleeping. And despite the fact that she wasn’t actually saying anything, he _did_ know that she was growing more and more impatient by the second.

“Sooo,” he began, hoping that the rest of the words would just _happen_ , as it were, “this is cozy, innit?”

Obviously it didn’t work.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” she suggested.

“Oh, blimey, alright then. Well, billions of years ago, a cataclysmic explosion of a singularity caused what you could refer to as the Big Bang, Event One, or even just ‘creation’. It resulted in a very compact, tiny universe that was very dense and very hot, riddled with dimension pockets and full of space-time anomalies that are now considered exceedingly rare. These were the beginnings of the Dark Times, of which not much is known - time travel so far back was-”

“Doctor,” Rose interrupted, “does this have _anything_ to do with what has you so upset? The, erm, results?”

“Ah, well, no … not as such. I mean, it’s tangentially related to absolutely everything, of course, but it … right, sorry.” He took another sip of tea, followed by a deep breath. The beginning, but not _that_ beginning. “I finally tracked it down. Old texts, ancient, that had descriptions of telepathic marriage bonds. Took ages to find one that sounded _right_ , though. Apparently most ancient Gallifreyans needed to have the assistance of an experienced telepath who specialized in this kind of thing in order to join their minds. Knew that couldn’t be right, so I kept on digging and when I-”

The words were flowing out now, faster than he could keep track of and for once he was aware of just how irrelevant they were. With a huff he stood up and began to pace in front of the fire, hoping that the movement would help.

“Very old, very rare, very _specific_. That’s what our bond is. There isn’t even a translation for what they called it, the word would be absolutely meaningless to anyone else, anyone who hasn’t experienced it for themselves. It’s the specificity, though, that made me realize that there was much more at work than just your growing telepathic abilities. When I went to the infirmary, it was really a toss up - either I was right or I was wrong and hadn’t found the proper information yet.”

“But you weren’t wrong, were you?” She bit her bottom lip, eyes tracking him as he moved back and forth across the sitting area that for once seemed _much_ too small.

“No,” the Doctor sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “The 6D scans will probably be ready later today, but I didn’t need those. Just different graphs of your base scans to measure different things. The thing is,” he nearly shouted, “if I hadn’t been about to regenerate, and then freshly regenerated, and then unpardonably distracted, I should have done this all _ages_ ago! Quick as I could after I’d taken the Vortex out of you.”

“Think we were a bit busy savin’ the Universe to bother with all that,” Rose pointed out, comfort and understanding passing over to him through their link, along with a few spikes of irritation and general chastisement for pointlessly blaming himself for something yet again.

“And what’s my excuse for after all that?” he drawled, unwilling to let her absolve him for this appalling negligence of her health and well-being. What kind of doctor was he, if he couldn’t be arsed to take adequate care of the woman he loved?

“Maybe, I dunno, the fact that I felt absolutely fine? That we were busy navigating all your new quirks and preferences while _still_ saving planets? Anyway, you still haven’t even told me what’s going on.”

The Doctor scrunched up his face as he dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. She was right, obviously. Somehow he was still managing to procrastinate. His teeth ground slightly as he set his jaw and made his way back to the couch.

“You have a large amount of artron energy,” he began. “More than just background radiation. Way more. I would say life threatening amounts, except you also are absolutely riddled with huon particles. Also deadly.”

“Huon particles?”

“Eradicated by the Time Lords near the end of the dark times - oh, look at that, it all came back ‘round, sort of.”

“But you just said they were deadly,” Rose frowned. “Why does it sound like they’re a good thing? I mean, your people obviously had a reason for gettin’ rid of ‘em all. How’re they even there?”

Oh, his magnificent, brilliant, _fantastic_ bondmate - always asking the right questions. A small smile lighted her face as she caught the thought.

“See, the TARDIS is connected to the Vortex, which goes all the way back - remnants of huon particles exist in her heart, which you opened up and used to merge with her, a whole fifth dimension running through the both of you. The huon particles are stabilizing the artron energy - it’s feeding them instead of overtly impacting the rest of your body. So in this case, this _one_ case, the reemergence of deadly particles from the dawn of time is a _good_ thing. Even so, that wouldn’t be enough, except you didn’t just merge with the Vortex alone but with the TARDIS. The TARDIS emits chronon particles, and one of the key differences between Time Lords and non-Time Lord Gallifreyans is that our bodies are surrounded by a bio-plasmic field of chronon energy, allowing us to bond with a TARDIS.”

“Oh. Right, that’s why when you were sick the TARDIS wasn’t working properly. Couldn’t translate for us.”

“Yes, yes, exactly.” The Doctor got back to his feet, the need to pace outweighing his desire to remain close to his wife. “Now, the thing about having a surrounding field is that it can, er, leach on to others. Infect them. Not in a bad way. It’s what provides me with protection from the time stream, helps with cell rejuvenation, etcetera. So actually, if a bit of it didn’t migrate away to those I’m close with, I’d never be able to bring anyone along on the TARDIS with me. Too dangerous. Thing is, you have your own now, not just an echo of mine. Which makes sense. You two became _one_ , of course she would bond with you as well. Thing is, to do that - your DNA, Rose. Becoming Bad Wolf. It’s given you symbiotic chronon nuclei.”

“And what’s that, then? Something to do with the chronon particles?”

“In a sense. It’s only viewable with a temporal reading, which the TARDIS base scans do automatically, because that’s what’s normal for _me_. She doesn’t change protocols just because the other person she’s scanning happens to be human. I’ve mentioned before that I have TNA. Triple helix instead of double, yes?”

Rose nodded, taking a wary sip of her tea.

“Well, it’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Properly, temporally scanned it’s actually _four_ strands. That symbiotic chronon nuclei is the physical, quasi-symbiotic link between the TARDIS and I. Now you have one too.”

“So wait, I’ve got four strands of DNA now? And we didn’t even notice?” Her mug clattered onto the table as she deposited it and stood quickly.

“No, no, no, just the three. No TNA. But this is where things get complicated.”

“You mean there’s _more_ ?” she screeched, going paler than she already had been, thoughts becoming a whirl of panic. “Isn’t it complicated _enough_?!”

“Weeeeeell, let’s go back to that third strand I’ve got, yeah? It’s pretty much, and by pretty much I mean almost the sole reason, that regeneration is possible. Stores all the information for past and future incarnations, as well as other things,” he explained, waving his hands around, “and as far as I understood it, that’s what allowed for a Gallifreyan’s self-replicating biogenic molecules.”

“Your what?”

“Remember the nanogenes?” he asked, finally walking back to her in order to weave their fingers together.

“Yeah, ‘course.”

“Gallifreyan bodies have something like that. Biological nanites. Not only do they allow for regeneration, but on a daily basis they repair and prune any damaged or malformed cells. Hence why we age so slowly. I’ll look just like this for hundreds of years yet.”

She nodded slowly. “And lemme guess, I’ve got those too, somehow.”

“Yes. Though wired differently than mine, You’re still _human_ , Rose. Just … with genetic modifications. Powerful genetic modifications. Obviously meant to keep you alive, because really, thinking about it properly, you shouldn’t have survived the trip back to the gamestation, much less been able to accomplish everything you did. A symbiotic self-renewing cell structure is really the obvious solution to the problem, and if you _did_ have TNA like I do, the gigantic surge of artron energy would have triggered a regeneration, just like it did for me. But your body doesn’t work that way, so it just- just healed the damage, no mess, no fuss.”

“And they’re still there now, healing stuff?”

The Doctor nodded.

“So what does it all mean, then, exactly? Without all of the science babble.”

“Without it?” He winced at the way his voice nearly squeaked.

“As little of it as you can get away with,” Rose conceded, the smidge of laughter in her voice doing wonders for his frayed nerves.

“Alright. Well, your cell death is almost non-existent. Your brain activity, in addition to the new telepathic adjustments, has increased in both capacity and function. You likely haven’t noticed because you haven’t tried to stretch things more than average, and why would you? Despite all of these changes, it’s not like you really _knew_ about them or have had any sort of training on how to incorporate them aside from our telepathy lessons. With the way you’re connected to the TARDIS, you could probably learn to sense time. That’s what allows for most of my time senses, by the way.”

“Doctor, less babble,” his wife helpfully reminded him.

“Right, yes, well,” he swallowed audibly, “the main thing is … you’re not going to age at the same rate as everyone else you know. Everyone human, that is. There’s no way for me to be certain how long your life might be, since our timelines are too tightly wound together.”

“They are?”

“Of course they are.” At this, the Doctor finally smiled, wrapping his arms around her. “That’s the thing, the crucial thing, about the bond. Why I needed to check the scans to make sure. It exists not just because we love each other, not just because we have compatible minds, but because our timelines were able to be synced. Literally able to be together forever, however long forever might be. This connection we have, it’s not the kind that can be forced, it can _only_ happen spontaneously. In fact, from what I’ve read, the existence of this form of bond is exactly why the practice of making less deep and all encompassing ones came into being. Others who weren’t as, as _destined_ for each other, for lack of a better word, wanted the same kind of intimacy. And of course it fell out of favor, not just because of Gallifrey’s abandonment of emotional ties in general, but because of the pain associated with losing a partner you’ve permanently telepathically merged with.”

“So that, us … we won’t have that?”

“I can’t view my own timeline and I can’t view yours, but I _do_ know that they’re so tightly twined that you can’t tell the two apart. I can _feel_ it, and maybe someday you will be able to on your own, but for now I can always show you,” he offered.

“I- I’d like that, but …” Rose trailed off, biting her lip and looking away.

“What?”

“’S just, you were so, so upset earlier. And it’s definitely a lot to take in, but, I mean, doesn’t it all seem like a good thing?” she asked, turning back toward him, eyes locking with his and broadcasting her pained confusion just as adequately as the bond itself was.

“For me? Of course it is, and the selfish part of me has never been more happy. But Rose, you have to understand that I wasn’t trying to be dramatic that night, outside of the chippy, when I said that my lifespan was a curse. You’re going to outlive everyone you know and love, aside from me. You won’t age at the same rate that they do. And I know that it’s expected for children to outlive their parents, but you’re going to spend far longer without your mother than with her. This … it was never something I wanted for you, the pain of so many goodbyes.”

Rose shut her eyes before burrowing her head into his chest, holding him tighter. For a long time they were silent, though the Doctor could hear her racing thoughts as she tried to process all of the information he had shoved at her in such a short period of time. He was content to just hold her, rubbing a soothing arm up and down her back until a singular thought rang out across their bond that had her gasping and him groaning.

 _We have to tell mum_.

The Doctor spun around the console in a whirlwind, Rose clinging to the jumpseat. He could feel her trepidation as they landed, her worry about her mother’s reaction to their news. So he wasn’t surprised in the slightest at her shock upon opening the TARDIS' door and finding them very much not on Earth.

“Think your driving’s a bit more off than usual,” she noted vaguely as he finally stepped away from the console to grab his jacket.

“Is it really?” He gave her a look of wide eyed bewilderment, just as his thoughts inevitably revealed that he had had no intention of making the trip to Jackie’s - yet.

Rose crossed her arms, giving him an unconvincing glare as the Doctor finally met her at the door and stuck his head outside.

“Ah, perfect!” he exclaimed. “Right where I wanted to be.”

“Oh, really? And where’s that then?” his wife asked, finally stepping out of their ship and having a look around. There were rows and rows of stalls and booths as far as the eye could see.

“It’s a bazaar. On an asteroid. Moves around every four cycles to a different asteroid in a different sector. Used to just be a handful of merchants and artisans and performing artists, a sort of circus, if you will, only without the mistreated animals and exploited people. Was called Mz’trak’s Marvelous Moving Menagerie - gotta love that alliteration, absolutely amazing. But as you can see, it grew. Doesn’t have a name now. Too much going on. Still, organized enough to make it’s trip across the quadrant. They span _galaxies_ , Rose Tyler! This is the place to go to find anything you could possibly imagine!”

“Okay,” she said slowly, drawing out the word as she turned back to face him. “And what, exactly, are we lookin’ for that’s so important that you’re putting off visiting mum?”

“Oh, right, see, about that - I thought, maybe, just maaaybe, you’d be able to find something for her here. To, erm, soften the blow, as it were. Butter her up a bit.” _Make her less likely to regenerate me_ , he didn’t say, but he didn’t have to. The thought was pretty much blaring on a loop that his bondmate was unlikely to miss.

“Seriously?! Doctor, if you hide away again and force me to have this talk all on my own, I swear-”

“No, no, I won’t! We’ll do this together, I promise!” he hastened. No need to have _two_ angry Tylers on his hands.

“Honestly, I don’t know why you’re so afraid of her,” Rose said with a roll of her eyes before taking his hand and beginning to walk through the market.

Normally she buzzed up to nearly every stall, wanting to see as many strange and novel alien things as possible, but this time his wife was quickly passing them by, categorizing everything in their immediate vicinity as ‘too alien’. Admittedly, the Doctor hadn’t given that much consideration when he decided that a gift for his _mother-in-law_ would be a good plan.

“It’s a premonition I have, really,” he told her, “that your mum will be the death of me. Unlikely, I’ll give you that, but you never know. Sometimes these things have merit. I was once very good at that kind of thing, seeing the future. Well, not _really_. More like an unconscious tracking of future timelines that seems like a form of prescience but is really-”

“You are so full of it,” Rose laughed. “But speaking of past yous, _I’m_ not going to regenerate, am I?”

While the Doctor had thought that he’d been very clear in the library earlier, perhaps he hadn’t explained very well. Too much ‘science babble’, probably.

“Nope,” he assured her, popping the ‘p’ and giving her one of his best grins.

“So Bad Wolf didn’t make me into a Time Lord. Just …”

“Bad Wolf didn’t do any such thing,” he frowned. “If you want, I can show you the second by second time stamps of the scans the TARDIS took of you during all that - constant state of danger, there’s hundreds of them. But no, the TARDIS did all of that herself so that you two _could_ become Bad Wolf. If you recall, our ship is a multidimensional alien being that even _I_ don’t completely understand. And she likes you. A lot. Didn’t want you to die.”

He stopped himself, barely, from continuing on (again) about how he should have realized this all ages ago. There was really no point to it, just his wounded ego. Plus, who had time for brooding, anyway?

“Sure she doesn’t just like _you_ a lot?” his wife asked with a smirk. “Y’know, making sure the girl her pilot likes so much has a matching lifespan?”

The Doctor abruptly stopped his near-skipping and pulled Rose into his arms with a growl.

“Oh, I much more than like you, Rose Tyler.”

“That so?” his cheeky wife asked him with a tongue touched grin.

 _Minx_ , he chastised telepathically, his mouth now busy as he dipped her into a snog that was likely inappropriate for public, but for once she wasn’t complaining.

“Also,” he added, after breaking the kiss so that she could catch her breath, “it would be Time _Lady_ , you know. And that is a little complicated, now that I think about it. Because you’re not Gallifreyan, but not all Gallifreyan’s are Time Lords or Time Ladies. Then again, you have the bit of genetic jiggery pokery that makes a Gallifreyan a Time, er-”

“Let’s just go with Time Lord, yeah?”

“It’s a hypothetical political correctness jumble,” he muttered with a grimace.

“So I’m a bit like a human Time Lady? Kind of?”

“Kind of. Eh. Doesn’t really matter, though, does it?”

Rose had gone back to scanning the booths, but was quick to turn her sharp gaze back to him. “How could it not _matter_?”

“Well, I mean, you’re still Rose Tyler. Doesn’t matter to me, what kind of species you call yourself. The important thing is that you’re you, and I get to keep you.”

And the Doctor could tell that she didn’t _exactly_ agree with him, all of the ramifications of this still buzzing around in her head and the impending talk with Jackie making her permanently anxious. But still, she smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

Finally some stalls came up that looked promising and his bondmate began looking at things in earnest. As he watched her flit about, the thought began to really settle in. They would be able to stay together, not just for the very short human forever that he had struggled to come to terms with, but for _his_ forever.

The weight of the Universe on his shoulders had never felt lighter.

It suddenly did seem a little bit ridiculous, all of his worries about Jackie’s reaction. At least when it came to _him_ . Over 900 years old, he could (probably) take it. If anything, he was more concerned for Rose. If (or really, it was more likely to be _when_ ) her mother reacted poorly, she would undoubtedly be hurt.

Flashes of their ‘marriage announcement’ briefly passed through his mind.

This time, though, he would be there for her. Absolutely no swanning off or hiding or cowering of any sort. Well, minimal cowering. Can’t set the bar _too_ high, knowing he was about to get a smack (even if none of it was actually his fault). It would all be worth it in the end, being able to spend the rest of his life with the woman he loved.

“Do you think mum would like this?” Rose asked, interrupting his chaotic stream of thought.

“What’s that?” The Doctor walked closer to the booth, finally taking notice of his surroundings instead of blindly following his wife. “Oh! These are all made of bazoolium! That’s brilliant!” he exclaimed, touching a large piece that was either intended to be abstract art or a Raqkle Bear about to attack, unsurprised by the neutral temperature. After all there was no weather to speak of on the asteroid.

“Yeah, he was just tellin’ me that they could predict the weather,” she said, gesturing toward the shopkeeper. The Doctor barely spared him a glance before investigating the ones that were combined with wind chimes, surprised when the chimes were actually made of bazoolium as well.

“They’re not incredibly unlike the barometers you lot have, only much more accurate. The truly impressive part is the fact that this property is naturally occurring in the mineral. Plus there’s really not much interpreting to it - if it’s hot, you’ll have a nice sunshine-y day, and if it’s cold there’ll be rain. Or snow, I suppose. But all you have to do is touch it. Definitely simple enough for Jackie to get use of-”

He winced when Rose telepathically zapped him, which he really should have seen coming.

After apologizing, the Doctor (for the most part) kept his mouth shut as she selected a small one that looked as un-alien as possible, something that any of Jackie’s friends would look at and think was some random tchotchke, just a _thing_ and then think nothing of it. As soon as she finished her purchase, he took her hand and reluctantly headed back the way they came.

In a private corner of his mind he had come up with thousands of different ideas for putting this next trip off, but eventually discarded every single one of them (even if some were astonishingly brilliant). His wife wanted to get this over with, so that’s what they were going to do.

If anything, he regretted putting all of their efforts into getting her mother some bauble to put her in a good mood when they should have also been coming up with a plan for distracting her after this ‘talk’.

“Distracting her? How would we possibly distract her?” Rose wondered aloud.

The Doctor felt strangely giddy, knowing that she’d been paying attention to him over the bond. They were starting to get pretty good at not constantly acknowledging all of the thoughts that were projected without real intent, so much so that he sometimes wondered if his wife was listening most of the time. His thoughts were very interesting, after all, so he wasn’t sure how she could ignore them if she wasn’t just tuning it all out.

She rolled her eyes, making it clear that she’d caught all of that as well.

“I don’t know,” he went on, “I’m not sure what _would_ hold her attention, aside from gossip and telly. Maybe we should nip into the future, get some _Eastenders_ DVDs. Or some tabloids. Then again, I doubt your mother could keep her future knowledge a secret and next thing you know, we’ll have a paradox on our hands. Can’t have that.”

Rose laughed as they entered the TARDIS.

“Dunno if it’s really much of a distraction, but I do have some laundry I’ve been meaning to bring over.”

Now it was _his_ turn to roll his eyes. “I refuse to believe your mother actually _enjoys_ doing your laundry. There’s a perfectly good laundry room in the TARDIS. You don’t even have to do much of anything. Just put your clothes down the chute and she’ll do all the rest, even the folding.” And yes, he had told her all of this before, on multiple occasions - every time she had laundry to bring back, in fact.

So the Doctor wasn’t surprised when she said, “It makes her feel useful. She likes doing mum stuff for me.”

She said something along those lines every time. This time, however, his responding ‘fine’ was telepathic, rather than verbal as he began piloting them into the Vortex and she disappeared down the corridor to gather said laundry.

Since he was going to have to wait until Rose was finished before flying them to Jackie’s (let it not be said that he can’t learn a lesson) he almost followed her to their room. But just as he moved away from the console, he sensed that his bondmate could use some privacy while she got her thoughts in order, trying to decide exactly what she was going to say to her mum, not wanting to get into absolutely _everything_.

So he sat down on the jumpseat, kicked his feet onto the console, and focused on sending soothing emotions over their bond. Eventually, Rose reappeared with her giant red duffle, looking plenty nervous but definitely less so than she’d been before.

“Ready?” he asked, hopping back to his feet.

“No,” she sighed, dropping the bag onto the newly vacated seat before flashing him a wary grin. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!
> 
> I'm hesitant to make an actual update schedule, because real life has been inSANE lately. Just know that I intend to update as quickly as I can while also being happy with what I've written and the amount of editing put in.
> 
> Kudos are always appreciated and comments and feedback are what keep me going <3


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Visiting Jackie definitely doesn't go according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it seems like I planned the update to be this way, but I really didn't.
> 
> This fic is giving me grief, but I'm powering through, and for that you all should def give it up to [more1weasley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/more1weasley/pseuds/more1weasley), my wonderful beta ♥

The landing was relatively smooth as they materialized in the middle of the playground next to the Estates. Rose grabbed her bag but then just stood there, staring blankly at the time rotor.

_What if she_ hates _me?_

Her projected terror and anguish hit the Doctor with the pain of a physical blow. He raced around the console and pulled her into a hug that was probably a bit on the side of too tight in his attempt to hold her as close as possible. She dropped her things back onto the jumpseat before wrapping her arms around him and balling his coat in her fists.

“Rose, your mother will _never_ hate you. If I know one thing for certain about Jackie Tyler, it’s that she loves you more than anything else in the _Universe_ ,” he informed her, willing his sincerity to find a way to make it through their connection, with the way his bondmate’s emotions were seemingly attempting to take it over.

“It’s just going to be _so much_ for her to take in. How’s she supposed to deal with that?”

“I’m definitely not saying her initial reaction will be at all _pleasant_. I think it would do you some good, memorizing this face. Appreciate it. It’s a nice face, and who knows what I may end up with once she’s done with me? But that being said, overall I’m extremely confident that your mum will still know that you’re _you_ , no matter what’s happened to your body.”

“I hope so,” his wife sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.

“I _know_ so,” the Doctor whispered in her ear before pulling back slightly. “In fact, let’s just stay here for a bit. That way you don’t have to immediately get into everything, just enjoy spending time with your mum. Then after we tell her, we’ll stick around so that she _has_ to get used to the idea. I mean, we have wedding things to do still, if that growing list on your nightstand is any indicator.” _Plus, it will hopefully get me some points_. While it seemed unlikely that he would get into Jackie’s good books anytime in the near future, he’d take anything that would swing things in his favor.

“That would be nice.” Rose finally managed a smile.

“Alright then, it’s settled. Now that we’re here, let’s just have tea and takeaway with your mum. We’ll watch some telly, figure out the whole of London’s business, and while she’s at it, she can explain to me exactly why she enjoys doing laundry so much.”

At that his wife laughed. The Doctor leaned down and kissed her, sending love and happiness across their bond and was inordinately pleased to have it returned. He did such a good job cheering her up, in fact, that he was now feeling quite good about this whole thing. Spending weeks at the Powell Estates wasn’t exactly what he’d prefer to be doing, but he’d managed it over Christmas and New Years, so he was confident that he would survive it again. All too soon Rose pulled away, once again grabbing her laundry and then quickly making her way to the door.

“C’mon, then. You’re gonna regret parkin’ all the way over here, if we’re staying for so long.”

“Nah, we’ll just move her later. Shove all the furniture in your old room out of the way so that she’ll fit,” he decided as he followed her out of the TARDIS.

Once Rose got her arms through the straps of the bag, he took her hand and they meandered through the playground.

“I have missed mum,” she said, taking in the bustle of life around them. “How long have we been gone? For her, I mean.”

“Oh, only about two weeks.”

“Really? Do you think she’s even gotten the postcard yet? How long do they usually take, it being international and all?”

“Should have gotten here by now. Can’t know for sure, though, too many unknown variables.”

“I bet you’re tryin’ to do the maths now,” she teased, swinging their arms back and forth as they got closer to Jackie’s flat. With their future discussion pushed back a bit, Rose was becoming more and more excited about this trip, and the Doctor could feel how much she had missed her mother. While it would only be two weeks for Jackie, it had been over a month for them.

“I’m doing all sorts of maths right now, so what if some of them happen to be related to customs services? Keeps me occupied.”

“If doing calculations and things could really keep you occupied, we’d do a lot less running for our lives,” his bondmate _oh so helpfully_ pointed out.

The Doctor didn’t bother responding to this as they made their way up the stairs.

“Mum, it’s us! We’re back!” Rose called as she unlocked the door.

“Oh, I don’t know why you bother with that phone, you never use it!” Jackie exclaimed, quickly meeting them at the door.

“Aw, c’mere,” his wife smiled, opening her arms.

He squeezed past them both as they hugged and said their ‘I love yous’ in the tiny hallway, only to get dragged back by Jackie.

“Oh no, you don’t. Come here!” his mother-in-law said, pulling him into a sort-of hug that trapped both of his arms to his sides, for some reason finding it necessary to rock him back and forth. Rose had no pity, quickly getting out of their way.

_You’re a bad wife_ , he mentally chastised as Jackie planted a much too wet kiss on his cheek.

All he got in return was a buzz of telepathic laughter.

“Hello, Jackie!” he squeaked. “How are things?”

“They’d be better if you managed to fly that spaceship of yours proper! It’s been three months! You said you two’d be back ages ago. I was starting to wonder if you’d be a year again!”

_What?!_

He winced at Rose’s telepathic shout. Really could have sworn he’d double checked the date.

“I’ll, er, check the TARDIS in a bit. Been awhile since I’ve done a full systems check. Lots of delicate machinery, you know. Speck of dust on the wrong circuit and then _bam_ , end up in 1546 instead of 2546, and let me tell you they have two _completely_ different dress codes,” he rambled as he finally escaped her grasp.

_Is that really what you think, or is it something else?_ his wife asked over the bond. She was of the opinion that the TARDIS always had a reason for landing them somewhere they hadn’t intended on going.

“I get this postcard in the mail,” Jackie went on, “from bleedin’ Alaska, then nothin’. Phone goes straight to voicemail, you don’t answer any of my texts. Lucky the hall was booked so far in advance when you set the date. But now you’re back, that’s what matters, I know.”

_Could go either way_ , he admitted. _It is true that I’ve been doing a lot less maintenance than usual._

Her concern was quickly forgotten as she shrugged her rucksack off of her shoulders and refocused on her mum.

“Yeah, calls didn’t go through because the flight went wrong. Still, I’ve got loads of washing for ya,” she said, passing Jackie the bag and really, he couldn’t understand why her mother was smiling about being handed a bunch of laundry. 

The Doctor rolled his eyes and looked around for a moment before deciding that the stack of freshly opened mail on the table was probably the most interesting thing in the room (he was wrong - dead boring).

“And I got you this,” his wife continued, “it’s from the market on this asteroid bazaar. It’s made of, er, what’s it called?”

“Bazoolium,” he replied, speed reading through all the bills one more time and trying to make sense of exactly _why_ it cost this much for all of these incredibly basic things. He couldn’t understand why neither Rose nor Jackie would let him upgrade the flat so that there would be no need to pay some company for electricity or gas or television. As someone who constantly complained about how expensive these things were, you’d think her mum would be all for him making some improvements. It was all a lost cause, though, so he switched to one of Jackie’s tabloids.

“Bazoolium,” Rose repeated. “When it gets cold, yeah, it means it’s going to rain. When it’s hot, it’s going to be sunny. You can use it to tell the weather!”

“I’ve got a surprise for you and all.”

“Oh, I get her bazoolium, she doesn’t even say thanks.”

He turned and gave his bondmate a smirk. While he had also been hoping that her mother would appreciate the present, the Doctor also wasn’t _surprised_. Jackie Tyler never did tend to act predictably. When they don’t come back with trinkets, she asks why they didn’t think of her when they were gallivanting around. They do, and she doesn’t have the attention span to appreciate it. Just their luck, really.

“Guess who’s coming to visit? You’re just in time. He’ll be here at ten past. Who do you think it is?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, go on. Guess.”

“No, I hate guessing. Just tell me.”

“It’s your granddad.”

The Doctor had been mostly focused on the gossip magazine (while mostly rubbish, they did have a knack for reporting on alien matters that the general public had been conditioned to not believe), but at this he snapped his head up. He’d never met a grandfather of Rose’s, and the alarm that shot through their bond had him very curious to learn why that was.

“Grandad Prentice,” Jackie continued. So, maternal grandfather then. “He’s on his way any minute. Right, cup of tea! I’ve told him all about the upcoming wedding, you know.” She disappeared into the kitchen, presumably to make tea. He was quick to drop the magazine and see what exactly had his wife so upset.

“She’s gone mad,” Rose told him in a low voice. _How could this have happened?_

“Tell me something new,” he quipped, trying to lighten the mood as images of an older gentlemen played through their connection.

“Grandad Prentice, that’s her dad,” she continued, “but he died, like, ten years ago.” Now she shared images of the funeral, open casket, no question as to whether the man they were burying was indeed Jackie’s father. “Oh my god, she’s lost it.” _How can she have gone so crazy in so short a time?! I know that it’s been months instead of weeks, but she was fine when we left!_

_We’ll figure it out_ , he assured her as he followed her into the kitchen.

“Mum? What you just said about granddad …”

“Any second now,” Jackie told them, looking thrilled.

The Doctor took a deep breath and looked around, activating senses that he usually kept blocked off so as to avoid the constant distraction. Something _was_ off, but it was just, just a tickle. He couldn’t possibly explain the slight deviation from normal, and knew without trying that the sonic wouldn’t be able to isolate it. The TARDIS might be able to, but still, he would probably need a better idea of what to have her look for. Narrow it down.

“But he passed away,” his bondmate calmly explained. “His heart gave out. Do you remember that?”

“Of course I do.” The manic gleam still hadn’t left her eyes, though.

Was it some sort of gas? Chemical? No, couldn’t be. He’d be able to taste it in the air. Telepathic influence? Unlikely, since there wasn’t anything brushing up against their barriers.

“Then how can he come back?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” her mum countered as all of his hairs began to stand on edge. She checked her watch. “Ten past. Here he comes.”

Even before the spectral figure emerged right in Jackie’s kitchen, the Doctor’s mind was blaring a mauve alert, his time senses flailing, unable to compensate for whatever it was that had just appeared. The timelines of everyone at the Estates, of everyone in _London_ , maybe even the whole of the United Kingdom for all he knew, tangled and cut off and back on again, on and off in an unsustainable state of temporal flux. All the while the spin of the Earth jolted slightly off kilter. This was bad bad bad bad _bad_.

“Here we are, then,” Jackie went on as if this was all completely normal. The Doctor’s eyes never left the ghostly figure and he knew that Rose was just as fixated. “Dad, say hello to Rose. Ain’t she grown?”

_That is_ not _your grandfather_ , he managed to project even as the rest of his brain was focused on trying to parse out what exactly could possibly be causing this.

_Yeah, no, I know_ , came his bondmate’s panicked response as he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the flat as quickly as he possibly could.

Every instinct the Doctor possessed was telling him to get away from the planet as quickly as he possibly could, but _that_ wasn’t going to happen. Like countless times before, he was running _toward_ the danger. Soon enough they were out of the building, finally pausing when they reached the narrow street between the different blocks of flats.

“They’re everywhere!” he exclaimed, baffled as everyone around them went on with their days as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening at all even as it seemed like every sense he possessed was screaming wrong _wrong WRONG_. And he knew that he was projecting it all through the bond, it would take immense concentration to stop it and he needed to focus all of his energy on figuring out _what_ it was that was causing it, on parsing out exactly what his body was trying to tell him.

Time was in flux, but also tangling and breaking but coming back together. It was as if whatever this was truly wasn’t corporeal enough to properly influence the timeline … yet. But they still had possible futures in which they _did_.

“Doctor, look out!” Rose yelled, and he barely had a moment to figure out what he was looking out _for_ when one of the ‘ghosts’ walked right through him.

Cold.

Death.

Nothing.

It felt _awful_. Both he and his wife shuddered at the shared sensation, and a horrible metallic taste lingered on the Doctor’s tongue. Whatever these creatures were, he knew without a doubt that they weren’t _good_.

_What are we gonna do?!_ Rose panicked across the bond.

He didn’t know. But he _would_ figure it out. Before he could properly articulate that, Jackie finally caught up with them.

“They haven’t got long,” she told them. “Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They’re about to fade.”

“What do you mean, ‘shift’?” the Doctor asked, hating that Jackie Tyler knew more about the phenomenon than _he_ did and ignoring his bondmate’s exasperation about this fact. “Since when did ‘ghosts’ have ‘shifts’? Since when did ‘shifts’ have ‘ghosts’? What’s going on?”

He tried to think again about how it had physically felt, his thoughts moving so fast that he _had_ to have missed something important. So much information coming in, but the horrid feeling drowned a lot of it out. It definitely wasn’t natural - nothing about them was. They didn’t belong here. Not on this planet, not even in this galaxy. But yet there was something familiar as well. A wrongness that he’d felt before? But he’d never felt anything like that before, so how -?

_You’ll figure it out_ , Rose assured him.

“Oh, he’s not happy when I know more than him, is he?” Jackie commented, cheekily catching onto exactly what he’d been thinking earlier. His wife nearly laughed despite the dire seriousness of the situation.

“But no one’s running, or screaming, or freaking out,” the Doctor continued as if she hadn’t spoken.

“Why should we? Here we go, twelve minutes past.”

They all watched as the so-called ‘ghosts’ slowly faded out of existence. The timelines around them became more stable, but still with an ever so slight flicker. Probably because whatever was making it possible for these things to press themselves onto the Earth was still happening, still intended to do it again. After all, apparently there were _shifts_ (of all the rubbish things).

_Calm down_. Rose sent a soothing wave of comfort over the bond as they headed back toward her mum’s flat - and it did help, but only a little.

_I need more information_ , he told her (also reminding himself).

Once inside again, he took his wife’s hand and pulled her into the sitting room, all but dragging her onto his lap when he sat on the sofa and turned on the telly. It was years ago that he’d last done this, sat in Jackie Tyler’s flat attempting to figure out what alien phenomena was happening via channel flipping. Her mum sat down with them and thankfully didn’t comment about the way he was nearly clinging to her daughter.

One of the things he’d quickly flipped through when they arrived was the TV guide, so the first program he turned on was ‘Ghostwatch’, which he’d assumed was one of those fake ghost hunting shows with subpar night vision and poorly altered technology that really only picked up and enhanced the latent low level psychic radio waves of the people in the area, who of course were imagining the machine would say something spooky. Obviously it was something different.

_So those ghost hunting things really are rubbish?_ his bondmate commented, sounding a little disappointed.

_Sorry_ , he replied, even though he wasn’t feeling apologetic in the slightest. _I could make one of those ‘ghost’ voice boxes and sit in this room and your mum would be able to hear everything we were saying right now. It actually_ is _impressive technology, telepathic vocalizers. But it’s an accident that the human race hasn’t realized yet._

It was a good distraction, talking to Rose about this, because the actual Ghostwatch program was beyond unsettling.

“What the hell’s going on?” he muttered aloud, as the host of the program was obviously adding to a story that had been in development for some time and not telling him anything _helpful_ (not that something resembling a military formation around Westminster Bridge wasn’t worth noting, but still). He changed the channel.

The weather wasn’t about weather, it was about ‘ghosts’.

_Good thing I got mum the Bazoolium_ , Rose tried to joke, but the thought was accompanied by waves of stress. The Doctor wished that he could help, could make her feel better, but he knew that his own anxiety was just compounding it, making a feedback loop. He flipped the channel again.

Ghost drama.

_Do you think this is why the TARDIS landed us here, made us skip months ahead?_ His wife wondered as he navigated away from the reality show.

Nothing important.

_Must be, though you’d think she’d land us right when it started. Where we could have done something about it before they had a chance to affect the timelines this much_. He quickly hit the channel button, refocusing on what he’d noticed about the timelines around them when they were outside.

Ghost _advertisements_.

There was something familiar about those as well. He just needed to _think_. And skip the commercials.

Ghosts in France.

_Worldwide, then?_ Rose hazarded a guess as things began to click. England. France. A glimpse of a time storm at the 2012 Olympics. He punched in a channel this time.

Ghosts in India.

_Yes_ , that was what was so familiar! _This_ is what he’d caught when they were watching the fireworks. He punched in another channel.

Ghosts in Japan.

At first he thought that the slight shift in his bondmate’s mood was just because Rose (and her mum) loved watching Japanese telly, but then he focused in on her thoughts and _she_ was remembering the time storm as well. Not just the chaotic timelines, but what he had said about _theirs_. He wasn’t meant to see their timeline, it should be impossible, but it had been there, cutting through the storm and continuing on.

It was _hope_.

Regardless, he wasn’t about to take any chances. Everything was still in flux. Just because he had seen that didn’t mean it was fixed. Not with the way the timelines around them continued to swirl and change based on variables he still had no real knowledge of.

“It’s all over the world.” Planetwide catastrophe. Definite invasion. An invasion he’d _missed_. He didn’t want to stamp out the tenuous hope Rose was beginning to feel, but it was hard for him to not feel bleak about his chances of fixing this. Why would the TARDIS land them so _late_?!

The Doctor blindly changed the channel.

_Eastenders_.

_Eastenders_ with _ghosts_.

He turned off the telly, tossed the remote onto the coffee table, and held his wife tighter for a moment before shifting them a bit so that he could more easily talk to Jackie. It wasn’t so bad, really, that he needed help from his mother-in-law. It was _fine._ If he repeated that enough, he’d eventually believe it, right?

“When did it start?”

Jackie leaned forward, obviously thrilled to get into things. “Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down-”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, already regretting asking. “No, I mean worldwide.”

“Oh. That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning and there they all were. Ghosts everywhere. We all ran ‘round screaming and that. Whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much. I tried calling, texting - nothing. Worried sick, but then it’s always been hard to get ahold of you in that ship of yours. Then it sort of sank in. It took us time to realize that we’re lucky.”

Two months ago. Those were the coordinates he had punched in. That he _knew_ he had entered in. But the TARDIS had changed them. _Why_?!

Rose shifted off of his lap to sit closer to her mum.

“What makes you think it’s granddad?” she asked, rubbing Jackie’s shoulder, sympathy and compassion coming off of her in waves.

“It just feels like him,” his mother-in-law began to explain. “There’s that smell, those old cigarettes. Can’t you smell it?”

No. No, there definitely was _not_. And he would know. Superior olfactory system.

“I wish I could, mum, but I can’t.”

“You’ve got to make an effort,” Jackie insisted. “You’ve got to want it, sweetheart.”

And that, _that_ gave him some real insight to what was going on. A psychic connection. Much more subtle than telepathy. _Belief_.

His wife turned to look at him as he confirmed his suspicions. 

“The more you want it, the stronger it gets.”

“Sort of, yeah,” Jackie replied.

“Like a psychic link,” the Doctor explained aloud, for her benefit. “Of course you want your old dad to be alive, but you’re wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in.”

Not that they were actually ghosts, but one thing at a time.

“You’re spoiling it.”

None of it was _real_ , but Jackie’s heartbreak obviously was. Still, he couldn’t let her live in the illusion. Whatever the ‘ghosts’ really were, they were dangerous.

“I’m sorry, Jackie, but there’s no smell, there’s no cigarettes. Just a memory.”

“But if they’re not ghosts,” Rose chimed in, “what are they, then?”

The Doctor turned away, trying to think. The way the timelines react to them, the various possibilities, they _must_ be corporeal in some context.

“Yeah, but they’re human!” her mother exclaimed. “You can see them. They look human.”

There’s shifts. Can’t have shifts without someone being in charge of the timing. So they don’t exist in the world all the time. Just some of the time. And without their proper form.

“She’s got a point,” his bondmate conceded. “I mean, they’re all sort of blurred, but they’re definitely people. Or humanoid, y’know.”

“Maybe not,” he pointed out, turning back toward them. “They’re pressing themselves into the surface of the world. But a footprint doesn’t look like a boot.” With that, he stood up. There was work to be done. “Let’s get back to the TARDIS. I have some scans I want to run.”

“You’re not takin’ off again, are you?” Jackie asked, alarmed.

“No, no. At least, not yet. Right now I just need the equipment.”

“How ‘bout I meet you there in a bit,” Rose suggested, standing up just to give him a hug.

He really wished her mother wasn’t in the room. It wasn’t that he was feeling particularly, er, _romantic_ , but still. It would be nice, _comforting_ to just be able to hold her for a moment, maybe a quick snog, without prying eyes. His wife smiled before standing up on her tiptoes and giving him a peck on the lips that he wasn’t quite ready for. When she went to step down, the Doctor pulled her right back up and gave her a proper kiss.

If he had his way, they wouldn’t be separated for a moment. His instincts were screaming against it. In the end, it made having to listen to Jackie scoff a very minor inconvenience. They were all in incredible danger, he could at least get a farewell snog.

“I’ll be home soon,” Rose promised as she broke the kiss.

_Home_.

Somehow she was always able to make him so _ridiculously happy_ , even when the rest of him was gripped with fear. The Doctor didn’t trust his voice, so he simply nodded.

_I love you_ , he projected over the bond.

_I love you, too_ , she replied, even as she released him, stepping back towards her mum.

He noticed Jackie roll her eyes, but she also had a bit of a smile - he wasn’t going to forget _that_ later.

“Right,” he finally managed. “Off I go, then. Oh! By the way, you might want to push some things aside in Rose’s old bedroom. Unless you want the neighbors to start complaining about ‘my constant comings and goings’ again. Planetwide invasion aside, we figured we’d stay a few weeks.”

Then he was out the door, though he still heard Jackie’s excited screech of, “Really?! Why didn’t you say so before!”

The Doctor couldn’t help but smile as he walked toward the TARDIS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!
> 
> There's still no update schedule, but I've already started the next chapter so *fingers crossed*
> 
> Kudos are always appreciated, and I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts/feedback!! ♥


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose try to track down some ghosts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look! It's an update!!  
> Hopefully they'll be happening more regularly now. I'm semi doing NaNoWriMo, and by that I mean that I'm attempting to write 50,000 words this month spread across any project (including this one).  
> I'm starting to find my groove with this fic, so *fingers crossed*
> 
> As always, many hugs and thanks for [more1weasley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/more1weasley/pseuds/more1weasley), my lovely beta.  
> && all mistakes are mine.

As soon as he entered his ship, the Doctor collapsed onto the jumpseat and stared blankly at the time rotor for a few moments. And then he glared at it.

“I _somehow_ manage to happen upon the exact coordinates for the beginning of an invasion, and for _some reason_ you’ve put me smack dab in the middle of it?!”

The answering hum was … frustrated.

He furrowed his brows, frowning. It would be exceedingly bad, _incredibly_ bad, _astonishingly_ bad bad _bad_ if something else was influencing the TARDIS. The Doctor sprang to his feet and immediately sonicked open the grating, taking a moment to place a temporary barrier around his panic before he could worry Rose.

Back at the flat, she was having tea with her mother. She’d only just managed to get Jackie to stop complaining about his apparent need to ‘make everything about aliens’, and they were now talking about the wedding. Apparently she’d found a baker who said they’d make up cake samples that _all_ somehow incorporated bananas. Best news he’d heard (well, technically) all day, and he couldn’t properly appreciate the sentiment when he desperately needed to check his ship _and_ parse out exactly what he was going to do about these ‘ghosts’.

First things first, he needed to make sure that the TARDIS was _physically_ fine. That she was healthy. And actually, it wasn’t so bad. There were some minor repairs he should take care of before they next left Earth, but nothing he couldn’t leave until after they’d saved the planet. The Doctor pulled himself out from under the console and bounced over to the navigational matrix, pulling a screen with him as he went.

His mouth dropped as he looked at the recording of their last flight path. A time track seemed to just- just pop into existence, pushing them months away. His ship had immediately landed due to the unexpected error. It literally looked like a _glitch_ in the Vortex - but there were no such thing as glitches in the Time Vortex. A whole _dimension_ doesn’t _glitch_ \- not without some outside force acting on it.

And any outside force meddling with time was even more dangerous than whatever these ‘ghosts’ were.

One bloody thing at a time, though.

The Doctor pushed himself away from the console and began pacing.

Ghosts ghosts ghosts ghosts ghosts.

Not really ghosts. Getting stronger from the psychic energy of the entire human race. Incredibly unpleasant when one walks through you - really do feel _dead_. Worse than dead. Likely nothing good, and all over the world.

But they appear in _shifts_. There’s _shifts_.

So someone had to be in charge of that. Probably multiple someones. But still, there would be a central location connected to them, giving them whatever help they need to press themselves onto the Earth from wherever they really are. To do that, all around the world, they would have to have an incredibly strong signal.

An incredibly strong, _traceable_ signal.

“Alright then!”

Headfirst into danger was just what it was going to have to be.

The Doctor sonicked open a different panel and began rummaging around for the equipment he’d need. It wasn’t long before he heard the TARDIS' door open.

“According to the paper,” his wife announced, “they’ve elected a ghost as MP for Leeds. Now tell me about this plan you’re tryin’ so hard to keep secret.”

He popped out of the grating with a backpack full of equipment.

“Who you gonna call?” he joked.

“Ghostbusters!” Rose laughed, more amused by the voice he was using than his shockingly similar looking technology.

“I ain’t afraid of no ghosts,” the Doctor finished with a little jig before dashing out of the TARDIS.

“My mum’s on her way down,” she informed him as he looked around the playground for the best area to set up the cones. Actually, should do nicely right where they were.

“Oh?” He turned on his heel and went back into their ship, pleased that she’d seen fit to set out the rest of the equipment they would need. “Let’s get these outside.”

“Doctor,” his bondmate huffed, even as she took a cone. _I don’t think we should tell her yet. About the lifespan thing. Not until after we’ve gotten rid of the ghosts. Like, way after. Next trip back._

 _That’s fine_ , he agreed as he sat down his roll of wire and cone and began plugging everything in.

“We’ll still have to stay for awhile, though. Because we said we would.”

The Doctor paused what he was doing, dramatically raising his eyes skyward. It was quite a nice day, really. You’d think, with London having nice weather for once, that he’d be able to _enjoy_ it. He opened his mouth, planning to vocalize his many complaints, but as soon as he turned back towards Rose, he saw Jackie walking up.

 _After the ghosts, yes. Sometime during this trip, though,_ please _._

He wasn’t ashamed to beg. Well … a little ashamed.

“Why’d you park all the way over here?” Jackie asked as he began plugging the wires into the cone Rose had placed.

“Got tired of the alley. Bit dingy,” he quipped. It was a _lie_ , but better than telling his mother-in-law that not only had the flight gone wrong time-wise, but also slightly by location.

His wife shot him a worried look as she caught the thought.

 _Later_ , he promised, rushing back into the TARDIS for the final cone. He would worry about all of that later - they had important things to do.

“When’s the next shift?” he asked as he sat the cone down.

“Quarter to,” Jackie answered, “but don’t go causing trouble. What’s that lot do?”

“Triangulates their point of origin.”

“I don’t suppose it’s the Gelth?” Rose asked, visions of their spectral forms playing across their bond for a moment.

“Nah,” the Doctor responded, and she quickly shrugged off the idea. “They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper.”

With the final cone plugged in, he ran over to make sure they were all in the proper position.

“You’re always doing this,” Jackie complained. “Reducing it to science. Why can’t it be real? Just think of it, though. All the people we’ve lost. Our families coming back home. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?”

He paused to give his mother-in-law an honest answer. 

“I think it’s horrific.” 

And then the Doctor bounced back into motion, unrolling the cable that would connect the triangulation devices to the TARDIS console. They were on a time crunch, after all. “Rose, give us a hand, love.”

His bondmate sighed before following him into the ship.

 _She’s so upset_.

The Doctor remained silent, aware that the thought wasn’t really meant for him and even more aware that there wasn’t anything he could say that would help. He plugged in the cable and turned to Rose, aware that her mother had followed them inside. _This_ is how they could help.

“As soon as the cones activate,” he explained quickly, pointing to the monitor, “if that line goes red, press that button there. If it doesn’t stop,” he continued, reaching into his jacket to pull out the sonic screwdriver, “setting 15-B. Hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop.”

“15-B, eight seconds,” she confirmed.

“If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left.”

“Uhm … oh!” His wife leaned over the console, which he found much more provocative than the situation really called for. “This button there?”

“Hmm close.”

And he’d really, sincerely intended to send her a mental image of the correct button, but some wires must have gotten crossed there. Instead what he sent was a memory of their return to the TARDIS right after the Rhibelini festival. Eh. Oops?

“That one?” Rose smirked, pointing to another button that was definitely _not_ close, while sending some very, uhm, creative suggestions that, unfortunately, weren’t actually feasible.

“Eehh, now you’ve just killed us,” the Doctor told her with a theatrical grimace.

_With the button, or- ?_

They both laughed, but only for a moment.

“Er, that one.” She confidently pointed to the correct button, telepathically informing him that she knew the whole time.

“Yeah!” he smiled before turning to Jackie. “Now, what’ve we got? Two minutes to go?”

Jackie looked down at her watch, and the Doctor was glad that she didn’t realize that he was just trying to make her feel needed. That he was a _Time Lord_ and didn’t need her help to check the _time_. Because his wife had to be right - there’s no way her mum actually enjoys the act of doing laundry. She enjoys _being a mum_.

 _You_ like _her_ , Rose teased over the bond.

 _Shush_.

He gave her a peck on the cheek before exiting the ship to do the final prep work on the triangulation cones. It was go time. The Doctor raced around, calibrating each one.

“What’s the line doing?” he shouted through the door.

“It’s alright,” came his wife’s answering shout, though she really didn’t need to with his superior hearing. She could whisper and he’d be able to hear her from this short of a distance. “It’s holding!”

“You even look like him,” Jackie said to Rose, and he could hear her just fine. Not that he understood what _that_ was supposed to mean.

“How do you mean? I suppose I do, yeah,” his wife responded, sounding pleased, though _he_ still didn’t know what it meant. Rose didn’t look at all like him. What a strange thing to say. He tried to refocus on the triangulation equipment.

“You’ve changed so much,” Jackie sighed. “All grown up and married to an alien, living in a spaceship.”

The Doctor almost said something to Rose about her mother acknowledging that they were, in fact, already married, but then caught himself. If she didn’t already know that he was eavesdropping, no need to make it obvious. Not that it would matter either way. He wasn’t going to stuff cotton in his ears just because the humans in his life couldn’t be bothered to remember all of his biological differences.

“For the better,” his wife replied with confidence. “We have an amazing life, and we’re in love.”

“I suppose. It’s just barmy. Seeing you two like this in this box of his. Makes it hard to pretend everything’s even a little normal.”

He wondered what exactly Jackie imagined their life was like when they weren’t around. Things had actually gotten shockingly domestic lately, though it would still probably be too alien for his mother-in-law.

“Mum, I used to work in a shop.”

“I’ve worked in shops. What’s wrong with that?”

“No, I didn’t mean that,” Rose sighed.

Once again the Doctor made himself refocus on the task at hand, all the while hoping that they weren’t about to have a row.

“I know what you meant. What happens when I’m gone?”

“Don’t talk like that,” Rose ordered, distress flooding their connection, making it nearly impossible for him to pay attention to the cones.

How exactly was he supposed to save the Earth with these working conditions?

There was a smug voice in his head, with a distinct Northern accent, very pleased to point out how they were right about avoiding domestics.

“No, but really. When I’m dead and buried, you won’t have any reason to come back home. What happens then?” Jackie asked her.

“I don’t know,” Rose mumbled, as she tried and failed to imagine their future life without her mother in it.

The Doctor frowned, realizing that he couldn’t quite picture it either.

“Do you think you’ll ever settle down?” her mother continued.

Their connection was now awash with all sorts of negative emotions, and he could tell that his bondmate was near tears, which was completely unacceptable. He turned away from the cones, ready to march back on board before stopping himself.

“The Doctor never will, so I can’t,” Rose told her. “Wouldn’t want to. We’ll just keep traveling.”

“And you’ll keep on changing. And in forty years time, fifty, there’ll be this woman, this strange woman, walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she’s not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She’s not even human.”

Their bond somehow managed to pulse mauve.

 _It’s going to be okay, love,_ he tried to comfort her, fighting to send soothing, positive thoughts over their connection just as he finished up the calibrations. A distraction, that’s what she needed! It was certainly what _he_ needed.

“Here we go!” he shouted.

“The scanner’s working!” Rose called out. “It says Delta-One-Six!”

“Come on then, you beauty!” the Doctor laughed, firmly resolved on drowning out all of the pain present in their shared mental space with adrenaline fueled glee. After all, he had always wanted to use these cones - they were state of the art!

He watched with wide eyes as the cones connected, immediately trapping one of the so-called ‘ghosts’ within their quasi-electric field. And then he reached into his pocket, carefully blocking their bond as he pulled out and put on a pair of 3D glasses - this was the part of his speculations that he really would rather not worry his bondmate with. At least, not yet. Not until he absolutely had to.

The ghost … _thing_ he’d just trapped was absolutely _riddled_ with Void particles. Completely covered, blurry head to blurry toe. Blimey.

The Doctor knelt down, adjusting the controls in order to get a more accurate read. If he was lucky, he would be able to figure out which parallel world these creatures were trying to come from. Likely a parallel Earth, but which one?

It began writhing, though nothing about the triangulation device should cause a living thing pain.

“Don’t like that much, do you?” he couldn’t help commenting. “Who are you? Where are you coming from? Woah!” He jumped back as the ‘ghost’ attempted to break out of the containment field. “That’s more like it! Not so friendly now, are you?”

He looked on as the creature faded away and the cones deactivated. While some more time would have been helpful, the Doctor had enough information to get started. After quickly picking up all of the cones, he ran back inside. Once he’d dumped them all out of the way, he raced up to the console, shrugging out of his coat and tossing it onto the railing.

“I said so!” he exclaimed. “Those ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source. Allons-y!”

With that, he slammed the dematerialization lever, the coordinates having been inputted by the triangulation device. So handy! Finally got to use it.

The TARDIS shook violently.

Well, maybe he could make some improvements ... if he ever got the chance to use it again. The Doctor sprung to his feet and stabilized the flight.

Things seemed abnormally silent in the console room _and_ over their bond. He was uncertain as to _why_ , but still gave over to his natural inclination to fill the silence.

“I like that,” he told his wife as he moved around the console. “Allons-y. I should say allons-y more often. Allons-y. Watch out, Rose Tyler. Allons-y. And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, because then I could say, ‘Allons-y Alonso’ every time.” He finally reached Rose and wrapped his arms around her before pausing. “You’re staring at me.”

“My mum’s still on board,” she whispered, squeezing his arms.

The Doctor looked up to see Jackie Tyler sitting on one of the platforms.

It was _terrifying_.

“If we end up on Mars, I’m going to kill you.”

Absolutely, bone-chillingly _terrifying_.

 _Stop being a drama queen_ , his bondmate chastised.

Oh, the _domestics_ of it all! Worse than living in a house! Traveling with his _mother-in-law_?!

 _You’ll be fine, it’s hardly_ traveling _. We’re in the same city, in the same time_ , Rose reassured him, rolling her eyes before giving him a proper hug.

What was he supposed to do now, though?! Bring Jackie with them? Leave her in the TARDIS? It would likely be dangerous wherever they ended up, invasion and all. The alternative was having her stay in their _home_ to snoop around and get up to who knows what. There was no winning!

“Welcome aboard, Jackie!” he said with a wave, his smile showing a bit too much teeth.

“Where exactly are we going, anyway?” her mother asked.

“Come down, mum. You can watch the landing on the view screen with us,” Rose encouraged, releasing him so that she could meet her halfway. “We’re gonna land at wherever they’re controlling the ghosts. Are you fine to stay on board? There’s a pool, you could have a nice swim. Or watch telly in the media room. We’ll be back before you know it.”

“I’m just supposed to hang out in this weird ship of his while you’re off trying to get yourselves killed?”

“We do stuff like this all the time,” the Doctor piped in, trying to reassure her. “Only this time you’re on the TARDIS instead of at home in your flat. Which, really, is much better, when you think about it. Best ship in the Universe.”

Jackie still didn’t look thrilled as they all gathered around the view screen. She looked even less thrilled as they watched the TARDIS land in a hanger before immediately being surrounded by armed gunmen.

“Oh, well, there goes the advantage of surprise,” he sighed. “Still, cuts to the chase.”

Now he was going to have to _deal with soldiers_. Really, every time he thought that the day couldn’t possibly get worse. The Doctor turned to his mother-in-law as he made his way around the console.

“Jackie, stay inside. Doors shut. They can’t get in.”

“I’m not staying here! Take me home!”

“It’s too late for that,” he told her. “Shouldn’t have come aboard if you didn’t fancy a trip.”

“I was kidnapped!”

He rolled his eyes, deciding not to dignify that with a response as he took Rose’s hand. She pulled him to a stop before they reached the door.

“Doctor, they’ve got guns.”

The Doctor mentally reminded his wife that they’d been surrounded by much, _much_ worse. Daleks couldn’t help but come to mind. 21 st century Earth guns were really the least of his concerns at the moment. Jackie Tyler accidentally breaking his precious timeship was more of a worry than _guns_. Whatever these creatures had planned, _definitely_ more of a worry than guns.

“And we haven’t,” he delightfully informed her. “Which makes us the better people, don’t you think? They can shoot us dead, but the moral high ground is ours.”

With that, he tugged her out of the TARDIS behind him and closed the door as casually as he could manage.

Honestly, with all of the emergency programs he had installed, why couldn’t he have made one to deal with _this_ scenario? A program that would immediately take Jackie home and then bring the TARDIS right back - now _that_ would be nifty.

They barely had a chance to look around before the soldiers surrounding them cocked their guns. He and Rose quickly raised their hands to prove they were unarmed.

 _Y’know what this reminds me of?,_ his wife casually asked across their connection.

_What?_

_Utah, 2012_.

The Doctor’s eyes swept the area as much as he could without moving his head. He could see her point.

 _Do you think they’d fire if I knocked on wood right now?_ , he asked her, just as a blonde woman in a suit rushed into the hanger.

“Oh! Oh, how marvelous!” she exclaimed, clapping.

 _I think she may’ve gone ‘round the bend_ , Rose laughed in his head as she fought back a confused smile.

The soldiers slowly began to lower their weapons as they joined in on the … clapping? Really, why were they _clapping_?

“Oh, very good. Superb. Happy day!”

Really, the Doctor felt inclined to agree with his bondmate on this one. Still, now that guns weren’t being pointed at them he was inclined to just go with it.

“Uhm, thanks. Nice to meet you,” he greeted. “I’m the Doctor, and this is my-”

 _Probably not the time to introduce me as your wife_.

“- this is Rose.”

“Hello,” his _wife_ waved with a wide grin that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Oh, I should say! Hurray!”

And there they went again with the clapping. Honestly, what the bloody hell was going on?

 _Think you’ve got more fans_ , Rose teased.

“You- you’ve heard of me, then?”

Really, where _had_ his ship landed them?

“Well of course we have,” the overly enthusiastic woman replied. “And I have to say, if it wasn’t for you, none of us would be here! The Doctor _and_ the TARDIS.” 

Everyone started clapping yet again. He was starting to get used to it, actually. It was kind of nice.

“And his companion, of course,” the woman continued.

Okay, not as nice. Then again, Rose was the one who didn’t want him to say she was his wife. Which was probably the smart thing to do, mid-invasion, but still. Just … didn’t _feel_ right. As it was, she had had to cover her mouth with her hands in order to keep herself from laughing - out loud. Their bond was awash with her amusement. The Doctor found himself fighting the urge himself as he tried to politely make them stop.

“And- and- and you are?” he asked as the noise died down.

“Oh, plenty of time for that,” she evaded. Huh.

 _I think_ she _thinks she’s the boss of you_ , his bondmate informed him.

 _She also thinks that_ I’m _the boss of_ you, the Doctor couldn’t help but point out.

_Bless._

“Aaaaaaanyway lead on, allons-y. Will there be nibbles?”

He fought the urge to take Rose’s hand as they followed the woman away from the TARDIS, surrounded by armed guards, stuffing his fists into his pockets. A moment later she tugged on his sleeve. The Doctor glanced over, taking out his hand when she rolled her eyes. Their fingers slotted together, perfect fit, as always.

 _We’ve been holding hands since the moment we met_ , she mentally chastised. Memories played across their bond.

She certainly wasn’t wrong.

 _Sorry_ , he told her, squeezing her hand. _Not sure how to pretend to not be married, I guess_.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Rose smirk.

 _Well, I took off my ring. Think all we’ve got to do now is not say it outright_.

Before he could properly respond, something on the tip of his tongue (or whatever the telepathic equivalent of that idiom might be) about how he could do a much better job than _that_ , the mystery woman started talking.

“It was only a matter of time until you found us, and at last you’ve made it,” she said. “I’d like to welcome you, Doctor. Welcome to Torchwood.”

With that, she flung open the doors and they entered a massive warehouse. A massive warehouse that was full of alien technology. And since this _definitely_ wasn’t UNIT, this was very, very not good.

 _Blimey_ , he told his wife, _you’re right. This really is frighteningly similar to that bunker in Utah_.

 _Gonna nip over to that crate and knock on wood?_ , Rose asked, only partially teasing.

He really was considering it, actually, but … (he peeked behind him at the armed soldiers following uncomfortably close) better not. Instead he focused on the spacecraft in front of them.

“That’s a Jathar Sunglider,” he realized.

“Came down to Earth off the Shetland Islands ten years ago,” the woman explained.

“What, did it crash?”

“No, we shot it down,” she stated. “It violated our airspace. Then we stripped it bare.” 

_Oh_ , this was _really_ not good. The Doctor tried to sense the timelines, but they were all still so jumbled and wrong that he couldn’t make out the consequences of it, this technology that Earth _really_ shouldn’t have right now. Not yet.

“The weapon that destroyed the Sycorax on Christmas day?” the woman continued with pride, “That was us. Now, if you’d like to come with me.”

 _That’s what Harriet said_ , Rose realized, replaying the memory over the bond, _Torchwood. I didn’t even think about it, though._

 _No, me either,_ he agreed as they were led further into the warehouse. Why hadn’t he noticed anything off before? He should have _felt it_. On Christmas, maybe not - he’d just regenerated. But apparently this organization has been active for at least a decade, if not longer.

“The Torchwood Institute has a motto - ‘If it’s alien, it’s ours’,” their ‘captor’ slash ‘tour guide’ explained. “Anything that comes from the sky, we strip it down and we use it for the good of the British Empire.”

“Excuse me, the what?” Rose interrupted.

“The British Empire,” the woman repeated, turning around and looking his bondmate up and down, sizing her up.

“There hasn’t been a British Empire in ages,” Rose informed her, and she wasn’t wrong.

“We’ll see,” their hostess replied, a little too condescending for his liking. “Ah, excuse me,” she continued as a soldier handed her _a particle gun_?! “Now if you wouldn’t mind. Do you recognize this, Doctor?”

“That’s a particle gun.”

Now that he was here, now that this had his full attention, the Doctor could feel the strain on the timelines. This whole building was a threat to the entire causal nexus. His wife held his hand tighter when he showed her just a smidge of it over their connection.

“Good, isn’t it?” the woman smiled, unaware of the impending disaster that he wasn’t yet sure how to fix. “Took us eight years to get it to work.”

“It’s the 21st century,” he calmly tried to explain. “You can’t have particle guns.”

“We must defend our border against the alien,” she replied, as if that somehow gave them a free pass.

The Doctor didn’t know what to say to that, which apparently was fine, as their guide wasn’t really paying attention anyway as she handed back the gun.

“Thank you, Sebastian, isn’t it?”

 _I think it’s best if we just, you know, let her talk_ , he told Rose, studiously not looking directly at her - and really, there was a lot to take in, the warehouse was packed with advanced tech. Much too advanced.

“Yes, ma’am.”

_Think she’ll give us an evil monologue?_

_Well, I don’t think she’s_ evil, he admitted. _I think she’s … some sort of, I don’t know, business woman? I think she truly believes that what they’re doing here is_ good _. Which makes them even more dangerous._

It would also make stopping them even more difficult.

“Thank you, Sebastian.”

He refocused as she turned back to them.

“I think it’s very important to know everyone by name,” she said. “Torchwood is a very modern organization. People skills. That’s what it’s all about these days. I’m a people person.”

 _Well that’s … nice?,_ Rose commented across the bond as she gave the woman a very forced grin.

“Have you got anyone called Alonso?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“No, I don’t think so. Is that important?”

Eh, oh well. It was kind of nice, though, having her asking a question for once.

“No, I suppose not,” the Doctor replied, just as he noticed a crate of Magnaclamps. He’d always wanted some, hadn’t gotten around to it, though. “What was your name?”

“Yvonne,” she told them (finally). “Yvonne Hartman.”

He let go of his wife’s hand, giving into the urge to inspect a clamp.

“Ah, yes,” Yvonne said with a smile. “Now, we’re very fond of these. The Magnaclamp. Found in a spaceship buried at the base of Mount Snowdon. Attach this to an object and it cancels the mass,” she explained, as if he didn’t already know. “I could use it to lift two tonnes of weight with a single hand. That’s an imperial ton, by the way. Torchwood refuses to go metric.”

 _Of course they do_ , Rose scoffed over the bond. _British Empire, I mean_ really.

“Well, that’s handy,” is what she said aloud as he tossed the clamp back into the crate, wandering away to try to get a better idea of all of the other alien technology they’d managed to scavenge, commandeer or steal. His wife wandered in the opposite direction, giving him a second set of eyes even if she didn’t know what everything was. It really was a devastating amount, and the Doctor had to assume that this wasn’t all of it.

Really, it was about time they got back on track.

“So, what about the ghosts?” he asked.

“Ah, yes, the ghosts. They’re, er, what you might call a side effect,” Yvonne admitted.

“Of what?”

“All in good time, Doctor. There is an itinerary, trust me.”

Ugh, of all the things to add to this no-good-very-bad-day, he was stuck on a _tour_. With an _itinerary_.

It was his personal hell, really.

And to make it even worse, there went the TARDIS on the back of a lorry.

“An itinerary?” Rose scoffed. “And what are you lot doing with the TARDIS?!” _My mum’s in there!_

Oh, _seriously_?! He’d just managed to forget that they’d left Jackie Tyler unsupervised on the ship. Really, truly, worst day _ever_.

 _Seriously? Could you just grow up and get some perspective?,_ his wife snarled over their connection.

“If it’s alien, it’s ours,” Yvonne replied confidently.

“You’ll never get inside it,” he told her with just as much confidence, if not more.

“Hmm, et cetera.”

Once she turned away, they both glanced back at their ship to see Rose’s mum peek out through the doors - which he distinctly remembered telling her to _keep shut_.

Really, why did no one ever listen? He didn’t understand it.

With a sigh, and all of his unflattering thoughts about his mother-in-law safely behind a barrier, the Doctor turned away to continue their ‘tour’. At least the ghosts _were_ on the itinerary. So this day had to turn ‘round at some point … right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! 
> 
> A reminder for something that I should have probably mentioned before: since this fic doesn't have a schedule, if you want to get notified when I update, hit the subscribe button! :D
> 
> Kudos are always appreciated, && I would love to hear your feedback!! ♥


End file.
